China's Lunar Calendar 2020 03-05

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Calendars and Almanacs" 

⇦⇦⇦⇦⇦ From right to left: ⇦⇦⇦⇦
3/7.........................................................................................................2/28

This is one in a never-ending series—following the movements of the calendar—in Round and Square perpetuity. It is today's date in the Chinese lunar-solar (or "luni-solar" calendar; I call it the "lunar" calendar in order to distinguish it from the kinds of calendars most Westerners use. It has a basic translation and minimal interpretation. Unless you have been studying calendars (and Chinese culture) for many years, you will likely find yourself asking "what does that mean?" I would caution that "it" doesn't "mean" any one thing. There are clusters of meaning, and they require patience, reflection, careful reading, and, well, a little bit of ethnographic fieldwork. The best place to start is the introduction to "Calendars and Almanacs" on this blog. I teach a semester-long course on this topic and, trust me, it takes a little bit of time to get used to the lunar calendar. Some of the material is readily accessible; some of it is impenetrable, even after many years.

As time goes on, I will link all of the sections to lengthy background essays. This will take a while. In the meantime, take a look, read the introduction, and think about all of the questions that emerge from even a quick look at the calendar. You will likely find that several of the translations seem quite "fanciful" in English. I am simply trying to convey that they also sound fairly fanciful in Chinese.

Section One

Solar Calendar Date
五
日
四期星

Third Month, Fifth Day 
Thursday, March 5

————

Section Two
Beneficent Stars 

(top to bottom, right to left)

月陰三四
恩德合相
Four Facings
Three Linkages
Yin Exemplarity
Lunar Benevolence

————

Section Three
Auspicious Hours
(top to bottom, right to left) 
申辰子
中中中
酉巳丑
凶吉凶
戌午寅
中凶中

亥未卯
吉吉凶

23:00-01:00 In-Between
01:00-03:00  Inauspicious
03:00-05:00 In-Between
05:00-07:00 Inauspicious

07:00-09:00 In-Between
9:00-11:00  Auspicious
11:00-13:00 Inauspicious
13:00-15:00 Auspicious

15:00-17:00 In-Between
17:00-19:00 Inauspicious
19:00-21:00 In-Between
21:00-23:00 Auspicious

 ————

Section Four 
Activities to Avoid  
(top-to-bottom; right to left) 

忌
栽針整理
種灸甲髮

Patterning Hair
Trimming Nails
Acupuncture and Moxibustion
Planting and Cultivating

 
Section Five 
Cosmological Information

十
二
丁
未

水
井

定

Twelfth Day (Second Lunar Month)

Cyclical day: dingwei (44/60)

Phase (element): Water
"Constellation Personality" Cycle: Well (22/28)
"Day Personality" Cycle: Decide (5/12)*
*Occasionally, a "Day Personality" repeats, as it does today.

————

Section Six

Appropriate Activities

and Miscellaneous Information  

(top-to-bottom; right to left)
蟄驚
五十己
十時正
七       
分       

宜

上開出祭
梁市行祀
安動移會
葬土徙友
華始桃 
陽血死八
將忌氣專

————

Insects Awaken
Precisely at the ji hour; 10:57 o'clock
(the third of twenty-four fifteen-day solar periods on the lunar calendar)

Appropriate Activities
Venerating Ancestors
Meeting Friends
Going Out (and about)
Moving Residences
Opening Markets
Moving Soil
Raising Beams
Positioning Graves

Peach Blossoms Flower
(the seventh of seventy-two five-day solar micro-periods on the lunar calendar)

Baleful Astral Influences

Eight Specialties
Death Vapor
Blood Taboo
Yang General

Section Seven
Inauspicious Stars
(the Chinese should be read right to left, 
but the English translation is underneath each character)
白 人

White, Person

 ————

Section Eight
Miscellaneous Items 
(the Chinese should be read top-to-bottom, and right-to-left;
the English translation for is under the bottom characters)

厠 庫 倉

Toilet, Storehouse, Granary